Sparky and Vodka
by wimsicalpan
Summary: My name's Riley, I'm a human slave. I come from this little planet called Earth, never take a vacation there, and slavery was my only way off. I took it upon myself to irritate my 'master's' as much as possible, you know, decrease my 'wantability' until finally Dyson bought me. Anyway, let me tell you about how I met Seamus Zelazny Harper and how he inadvertently changed my life.
1. Is that a dataport?

**Summary:** My name's Riley and I'm a human slave. I come from this little planet called Earth, never take a vacation there, and slavery was my only way off. Anyway, let me tell you about how I met Seamus Harper and how my life changed.

**Rating:** T to be on the safe side

**Pairing:** Eventual kind of Harper/OC

**Disclaimer:** All I own is Riley and the other OC's, everything else does not belong to me.

**A/N:** This story will be written in the first person from Riley's point of view, so the style may be different to normal.

Sparky and Vodka

There's some truth to the reputation these back water drifts gain. For example, take the two Nightsiders at the end of the bar. Right now, they're squabbling about the worth of an abandoned smugglers ship and who had claims to it. In one corner of this small and busy bar is a group of Nietzscheans. They were too loud and drank far too much. Anybody could see the murderous looks growing in the Kalderans eyes the next table over.

If a fist fight started, again, I was out of here. Everybody somehow got pulled into them unless you knew how to duck and weave. All I wanted to do was drink my beer in peace, enjoy my night off and forget about life for a little while.

"So tell me," I lifted my brown eyes to the mirrored panels behind the bar. The guy who had sat down in the vacant seat next to me and started to talk was a human with spiky blonde hair. Was that a dataport or a smudge on the mirror? "What's a girl like you doing in a place like this?"

I couldn't help the curve to the corner of my mouth and I turned in my seat to face him. He wasn't half bad to look at, a little on the small and scrawny side, but who was I to judge? I made everybody look tall. "Drinking." I took a sip and eyed the odd quirk of his mouth. It was a sly smile if ever I saw one and I let my own sly smile begin to grow. "Isn't that obvious?"

He waved a dismissive hand at me and took a gulp from his drink. "Yeah, but in this place?"

I arched one brow and glanced over my shoulder at the room. "What's wrong with this place?"

He pointed a finger at me. "You look as if you don't belong here."

I let out a laugh. I could see where this was going. Worse men had tried worse lines. The guy really needed to work on his lines. I gave him another look and noticed the side of his mouth smirking, his brows together, curious to what my response meant. If anybody didn't fit in here if was him, but, I dropped my eyes down his almost clean red t-shirt. What that a grease stain? "Well," I started and I no longer could contain my grin. I knew just how to play along. "Where would you say I do belong then?"

His brows jumped and I managed to contain my laughter by taking a gulp of my drink. I would need another one soon and I eyed this blonde haired stranger with curiosity. "Oh I could think of a few places."

I wondered how much success, if any, he had with that kind of line and I shook my head with a wide smile, my eyes focused on the froth in my drink. "You need to work on your lines."

"What?" His smile dropped away. "There is nothing wrong with my lines."

"They're corny."

"Everybody likes corny."

I raised my brows at that and shook my head, my grin still in place. I had to admit, there was a certain charm about him. "Sometimes it's best to just start with your name."

He stuck his hand out, big smile back in place. "Seamus Zelazny Harper."

I took his hand and contained any questioning looks from my face. That was a mouthful and certainly not a common name, although, I could've sworn it sounded familiar. Earthly familiar. Seamus looked proud and I smiled politely, "Riley. Just Riley."

"Well," he said, smirk coming back into place, "Riley, Just Riley." I grinned and the almost chuckle that left me made his smile grow. It was a smile of a confident man. He finished off his drink and said, "How about I buy you a drink? What'll it be?"

I eyed my almost empty drink and nodded. There was no harm to letting him buy me a drink right? It was my night off to do whatever I wanted. "Sure thing Seamus," he scrunched his face up ever so slightly that I was impressed I caught the look, but I ignored it. "Surprise me."

That returned the smile to his face and he jumped off his seat. "One surprise, fantastic drink coming up."

I laughed as he walked to the end of the bar where the Chichin bartender stood. Maybe having company wasn't such a bad idea and he seemed innocent enough. I watched him make an order and lean on the bar top as he waited for the drinks. And I couldn't help but to let my eyes trail down. Hey, I know how to admire a man's assets and if Seamus just had to lean over the bar in such a way… I bit down on the inside of my cheek as thoughts began to stir. I lifted my eyes away from his behind and almost jumped in my seat. He'd caught me checking him out. I turned to face the mirrored wall and pushed my drink into my face, finishing it off in three quick gulps.

When he came back there was a knowing smirk on his face and that smirk? It was cute. In Seamus' own way. Everybody had their own cute smile. "Enjoying the view?" he said.

He put a dark, bubbly substance down in front of me and I stared at it. My expression was caught somewhere between a smirk and curiosity as I answered him, "Yeah, I suppose. What is that?"

He sat back down and took a large helping of his own drink. "A surprise. Trust me, you'll like it." And he took another large helping of his drink.

I turned sceptical eyes down to my drink and chewed on the inside of my cheek. It did not look inviting but it was a free drink and I never turned down a free drink. I grabbed the glass and decided to hell with it and took a sip. It was sweet, sticky, it burnt the back of my throat and marked a fiery path down to my stomach and there certainly was some kind of kick to it. I took another sip, to test my taste buds. A warmth had been started in the pits of my stomach and I found myself smiling. "Okay, I'll bite. What is it?"

He laughed. "Told ya' you'd like it. Sparky cola with a hint of vodka, or whatever passes for that around here."

I smiled and took a gulp of the concoction. I'd heard of sparky cola, had even tried it as an alternative to coffee now and then, but I couldn't stomach it the same way I could pure caffeine. But with vodka? Bring on the drinks! "Alright, Seamus," I said.

He made another 'almost face' and held his hand up. "Okay, usually I ask people to call me Harper."

"Usually?"

He grinned. "Usually, but you?" An awkward chuckle escaped him and I frowned. "I don't know. It's the way you say it."

"Seamus?" He made another face and I grinned. At least that cleared that up. It wasn't exactly a look of distaste, but it was certainly something. "As I was saying, I have to ask, where are you from? You don't live here I can tell you that and that dataport," I pointed a finger at his neck, "you do know how to use it right?" Some of the people I'd met got one installed because of the *idea* of what they could do. But those that could navigate the virtual reality matrix without any backfires, or with minimum damage, were few and far between.

He waved a dismissive hand at me, "Of course I know how to use it."

I grinned. Just a touch of arrogance and a little offended I'd consider such a possibility. Seamus was fun to mess around with. I gave him a shrug and took another sip of my drink. I set the glass down and said, "I'm just saying, some people can't navigate VRM to save their life."

"Well I can," he took a helping of his drink, his brows furrowed and I waited for him to speak. It didn't take a genius to know that something was on his mind. "Why the interest?"

I let my smile remain as I tapped my fingers against the side of the glass. Because VRM's are so much better with two? Because I don't want you to be an idiot? A schmuck? "Just curious I guess." The vodka that was mixed into the Sparky was hitting the edges of my vision and I tried to eye the bottles behind the bar. Some of these drifts made their own, or bought the 'good stuff' that most people didn't know about. Had Seamus bought said drink? I grabbed my drink and turned to face this guy with spiky blonde hair. "Would you rather I called you Harper or Seamus?"

He smiled and said, "Harper."

I nodded and took a sip of my drink. "Tell me Harper," I grinned and turned to face him, "what's a guy like you doing in a place like this?"

He laughed and damn, I liked his laugh. "I got a couple days leave before we're gone again."

I raised my brows. I was only interested in one night and Harper was checking a lot of boxes it was usually hard for me to find. Smart? Check, at least, I hoped that that was what the dataport meant. Funny? Check. He did make me laugh. Cute? Yeah, my kind of cute. Human? Check, check, check. Not wholly interested in me for my body? Err. Okay, that one didn't necessarily *need* to be ticked. But he ticked enough and I threw back a good few mouthfuls. "Well, what do you say we ditch this place and go somewhere a little more... private?"

That got his attention and I grinned as he seemed flustered. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that that didn't happen often to him. I laughed and took another sip of my drink. "Sure," he said, "I'd, I'd love to." His smile returned and I grinned. I did like his quirky, cute little smile.


	2. Change of plans

I awoke with a slight ache at the base of my skull and a cotton filled mouth. I worked my mouth, to try to ease the dryness, when a body of warmth that wasn't my own caught my attention. I jerked my head up and pried open tired eyes to see spiky blonde hair and I frowned. How could anybody's hair keep its pose after a night of sleep?

I blinked my eyes open and moved to sit up; extracting what limbs I could from around Harper's body. The guy sure did sprawl out when he slept.

Clothes. I needed clothes, and trying to get around his sprawled out body looked easier than it actually was. Part of me didn't want to wake the guy. We'd left soon after I'd suggested leaving, but that hadn't stopped us grabbing a few bottles of stuff on the way to my place and drinking them, or mixing them _then _drinking them. That produced some weird, delicious and disgusting concoctions.

But I needed clothes and at some point, Harper needed to wake up. My eyes dropped to him and his data port caught my attention. That was another thing. He'd found my data port, an older version of his. That had been an interesting hour and I have to say, the guy knows his way around a data port.

I could feel my mouth twitch into a grin at the memories that started to appear. But I stuck a hand out and shook his shoulder. "Harper," I said. He made a sound somewhere between a grunt and a snore and I just gave him a look. He rolled over and burrowed his face further into the pillows. "Harper."

"Five more minutes," he mumbled into the pillows. I shook my head and climbed over him. It was awkward and clumsy and I lost my gripping once to accidentally lean on his leg. Harper just groaned and pulled on his leg. I let him have it and finally landed on solid ground. There was a nice trail of garments leading the way towards the door and I dressed as I picked them up.

By the time I reached the door I was dressed and I had gathered Harper's clothes up into one of my arms. I marched up to the bed and eyed the sleeping man once more. He looked so content that I almost felt bad for having to wake him up. But I had to. I had a 'job' to do and he needed to be gone by the time my 'boss' came around.

Speaking of work and bosses, I turned my head to the cluttered table that stood nearest to the bed. My eyes fell over the device I'd spent the past two days working on and I closed my eyes with a silent groan. My morning just got worse. I dropped the pile of clothes onto Harper and ignored his slurred words as he stirred into the land of the living. My hands sought the broken pieces that lay abandoned and I assessed the damage. An hour's work just to test the parts and another hour to fix what damage had accidentally happened.

"What time is it?"

I turned my head to see blue eyes blink tiredly open as he simply held his clothes in his lap. He looked back up at me and I shook my head, and any thoughts of him back in bed, out of my head to look for a clock. There was one on my table and I lifted it up, "Nine twenty."

He furrowed his brows and made a noise somewhere between a groan and a sigh. I closed my eyes and told myself to _not_ turn around and eyes his naked chest which led to other naked areas.

_It was for one night. One night. No more. _

"So you're kicking me out?"

I shrugged and picked up a battered nano-welder. "Last night was fun Harper, but I still have work to do."

He opened his mouth, his face screwed up into doubt before he said, "Right." I gave him a look out of the corner of my eye, the corner of my mouth twisting into a smirk. Some people's early morning, sleep deprived voices were to die for. His? Not quite to die for, but it was close. He yawned and I tried to keep a smile off of my face as he stretched. Then he was getting dressed and I busied myself with fixing a few broken wires and framework.

By the time he'd pulled his shoes on my eyes were fixed on the clock. Nine twenty seven. Eighteen minutes until my boss arrived. Eighteen minutes til I was roasted alive for not having the Footprint Nullification device finished. You can't rush perfection, but try telling that to a human with a desire to pave a way in the world of thieving, lying and conning. A human was going places mind you. With anger issues. Great.

"What's that supposed to be?"

I shook my head and looked up at Harper. He was peering over my shoulder at the pieces within my hand and before I could answer he was already picking up one of the pieces. "Footprint Nullification device."

"Oh yeah, you said something about this last night."

"Yeah."

"It err basically erases the footprint of the ship this things attached to right?"

I smiled. So he wasn't just a pretty face. "Right. Only now I need to put it back together." I grabbed the part out of his hands and sat it back down on the table. He was still eyeing it up with interest and I stood, putting myself between him and it. Pesky human engineers wanted to sink their teeth and hands into anything they could grab. Sorry Harper, this one's mine. "Look, I'm sorry Harper but I've got a lot of work to do."

There was a brief flicker of disappointment before he held his hands up. "I got a couple of beautiful ladies that'll kill me if I don't show up."

I raised one brow. I couldn't tell if he was lying, screwing around or telling the truth. "Right."

We reached the door and I let Harper open it and exit. I stood in the doorway, watching him as he hesitated to walk away. "Can I call you?"

I raised both brows and opened my mouth. "Erm, I er," it wasn't something people often asked. "I, I guess so. Just, you know, don't be surprised if you get a busy signal." I quickly moved back inside to grab a spare flexi and I put my number into it before I handed it to him. "See you."

"Bye Riley," he said and he walked away with a hop in his steps. That man sure knew how to make a woman smile with his little, oddities.

I sighed, closed my door and snapped my attention to the clock. Nine thirty seven. Crap. It would take more than eight minutes to fix what I'd broken. I slinked back to my seat, picked up my nano-welder and a flexi before I started working once more.

Turns out I didn't even get five minutes before my door was opened. I dropped the welder and the piece I'd been working on. Erick Dyson walked in like he owned the place, which wasn't too far off the bat actually. What can I say? Slaves don't make an awful lot of money. Almost none in fact.

"Riley," he said. The door closed behind him, but only after his hired Cyborg mercenary stepped in. Mitch or something his name was, I couldn't remember, didn't care to. He stood to the side of the room, starting at me and I wanted to pull a face at him.

"Dyson," I said back. I stood up and flicked my eyes from the table to Dyson, back and back again. Nobody called Dyson by his first name. Fact. It wasn't the menacing look to his eyes or the scars across his arms, from tussles with Nietzscheans to brawls with Kalderan's and Ogami. But it was the fact that he didn't hesitate to kill people. Unless you were me and held some value. Even then, it was questionable whether or not today would be the day I died.

"You finished?"

I opened my mouth, eyed the pieces on the table and looked back up at him, "No. But I still have a few days left."

Dark green eyes focused on me and I felt a shiver run down my spine. I swear looking into his eyes is like looking into a soulless pit of pain, misery and despair. He stepped into the room and I tried to take a step back, but my legs hit the bed. I settled for pulling the chair between us and he stopped just in front of it. There was a twitch of a smirk to his mouth and I felt my heart drop. That usually wasn't a good sign. A good day was one where he didn't smile at all and nobody died. A bad day started out when he did smile. I hated those bad days. "There's been a change of plan. Tomorrow we'll be going after a Commonwealth ship."

All fear drained itself to be replaced with curiosity. "Commonwealth? Since when were there Commonwealth ships? Didn't they all like die in the Fall or something?"

His angry smile came back and so did my fear. "Not this one. It's been around for a while and there are some very interested people."

My curiosity got the better of me again. "How interested?"

He pointed a finger at me and said, "You'll get an extra ten percent."

That was a lot. I liked a lot. A lot got me a lot. "Tomorrow?" My eyes moved back to the table, to the broken device and I nodded, my smile beginning to grow. "I can get that working."

"And getting us onto the ship?"

"Two minutes with my eyes closed?"

"That's what I like to hear."

I let my smile and his mouth twitched again. My smile faltered. What was up with him? "Any idea on what kind of ship this is?"

"High Guard-"

"Type, design spec. There's only so much I can prepare for going at this blind." His eyes started to narrow but my need for information to do my part was outweighing that for concern over my safety. "Tell me you have some design specs or blueprints of any part of the ship. If not then I can't guarantee that I'll know what I'm doing. It's all well and good saying High Guard ship, but each ship is different and unique in her own way. You help me to help you."

There was a dangerous silence that filled air and I gulped as I realised that I'd interrupted him. Dead people interrupted. And I liked not being dead. "I'll give you a name, the _Andromeda Ascendant. _That should be enough to get you started."

He placed a hand on Mitch's shoulder as he moved towards the door and said, "You'll have company."

"A babysitter? Really?"

Dyson snapped his head back to me and I felt the blood drain from my face. Some days I forget to use the verbal filter and other days, I just outright ignore it. "Is there a problem?"

I stared at him, the merc, and shook my head, "Nope."

"Good. Get to work. We move tomorrow at eight. You better be ready by then." He kicked at an empty bottle of beer and threw over his shoulder, "And clean this place up."

I gave him an awkward smile as he left. With any luck he was going to find some poor sap to beat up, terrify or kill. At least, I hoped he was. Bad luck to the guy who Dyson does beat up, but I'd rather them then me.

Mitch looked at me and gave me a hard look before I sighed and sunk back into my chair, "I'm working," I said.


End file.
